I turned the key and pushed open the door. There was a mountain of junk mail behind it, which I squished out of the way. I shuffled in and stood in the quiet, empty hallway.
The door clicked behind me. I was home.
Granted, I was standing on a pile of old newspapers and flyers, takeaway menus and charity letters, but I was actually in my own home for the first time. I smiled to myself, right there at the bottom of the stairs.
I had expected the miracle to be something grand, something outrageous and something impossible. Paul had said to me, 'Don't settle for anything less than a miracle.'
Yet somehow, I had overcome my emotions: my loneliness, my sense of failure at admin, my inability to get things done, and my dreadful fear of change. Somehow, I had overcome the financial impossibility of five years ago, when it looked like this day would never come, not to mention getting gazumped and frustrated and worried about how it could ever happen! God in His wisdom had made a way for the impossible to burst into the realm of the possible. And in the quietness of that moment, I realised that the miracle had been in the journey all along.
I kicked off my shoes and sat down on the stairs, ready to pray and say thank you.
Something small and red caught my eye, resting on the sprawl of junk mail. I extracted it from the pile.
It was one of Sammy's designs she'd made for the Methodist Church's Christmas advertising - a little silhouetted papercut image of a wise man looking up at a star, all inside a bauble. On the front, in white writing were the words, 'The Journey'.
Of course! It was all about the journey! The wise men, the shepherds, even Mary and Joseph - the journey enabled the miracle to happen in exactly the right place and at exactly the right time! Just as He always does, God had burst out of the realm of the impossible to make His home in the possible. And now. here we are, alive with impossible made possible in us.
The Methodists must have pushed it through my door, not realising that it would be the first thing I would see - my friend's artwork, a reminder from Heaven, and a beautiful welcome at the end of my journey... home.
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Addendum. I thought I would add links to the whole Home Hunting story, just to remember what's happened since March 21st when this whole thing started...
Home Hunting
1. The In-Betweeners
2. The Merry-Go-Round
3. Green Light
4. Imagination
5. Planet Gogetter
6. Gazumpery
7. Prerequisites for a Miracle
8. Character
9. The Matrix
10. Unreachable Palaces
11. Too Low
12. Return to the Forbidden Planet
13. Wait For It
14. Top Trumps
15. The When and The How
16. Solicitors' World
17. Home Straight
18. Impatience Quotient
19. Exchange Day
20. The Miracle
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